Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1902 — The Patriotic Spirit. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Patriotic Spirit.

Every boy and girl in America may well be prond of the bright flag which waves above so many school houses today; and the youth of other countries also love their national flag and their native land, so that the patriotic spirit is not confined to any one people nor to any one period of human history. Just because that spirit is sweetest where the people are most earnest to seek the happiness of all their countrymen, it is right that we study the history of other countries and peoples, to see if we can learn from them that which will make us more blessed and prosperous. Sometimes we think that there never was a country where everybody had so much cause for being happy as in these United States. And sometimes we forget that nearly all the laws, maxims and incentives to patriotism which move our Own hearts and bless mankind had their real origin long before Greece and Rome were known to history. The trals of our forefathers when they first landed upon these shores and during their gradual attainment of national independence never fail to awaken sympathy. And yet the most noteworthy adoption of a new country b.v'h wandering people was that of the Hebrew. The devotion of his Hebrew ancestors to their native land xvhen they were captive exiles, far away from home, is a sublime type of the patriotic spirit in its noblest and best expression: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning! If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!”—Gen. Henry B. Carrington, U. S. A.